When I teach my infants we have this song called “Bouncing Baby”. This is one of their favorite songs. I use it for children from around six to seven months up to two years old. I think one of the reasons that they love it so much is babies love to bounce. Bouncing, clapping and tapping are all very important to babies’ growth and development. These three things help babies with rhythm and timing.

Helping children with rhythm and timing is important. It helps them with developing language skills later on. You may not realize it but we all talk in some form of rhythm even if it’s a monotone rhythm. Babies use these rhythms to help make sounds and words. The rhythm sort of creates markers for babies to help them with speech. This is the reason why preschool and early learning utilizes rhyming words and nursery rhymes.

You can use bouncing where you bounce the baby up and down on your knee. Or you can use clapping to the beat of the music or help them to tap a body part usually their legs to the beat of the music. For younger children I usually give them a rattle for them to shake. I don’t look for them to shake it to the rhythm. I just want them to just have fun shaking the rattle which they do.

So have fun bouncing with your baby or have them shake a rattle. With the older infants that can, I give them a little stuffed animal or a little soft doll to bounce on their knees. They love it and have such fun. Children love working with props any way so give it a try. You can use a small cloth or scarf, they will have a blast.

Please share this your friends and family online through social media and off through word of mouth. Please also leave a comment sharing what works for you and your child, actually it doesn’t have to be your child. You could be a caregiver, grandparent, god-parent or aunt or uncle, just share what has worked for you.

4 Responses to “Why Bouncing Babies Is Good For Them”

I totally agree. My son is 7 months old and adores bouncing (whether with assistance from me or in his jumperoo). When he’s on me, I’ll often sing the nursery songs we grew up with (or just the ABCs). Since my little guy likes to “stand” on me, I’ll sometimes just help him boogie to music from the TV, too. He absolutely loves it. It’s not just good for development of speech, rhythm, and timing – it’s also just good old interaction with other people in a positive way!Melissa recently posted…7 Months…

Absolutely Melissa you are 100% right. To boogie and get down with your baby is a lot of fun and a great way to provide positive interactions with them. Doing this helps them to feel loved, cared for and nurtured and creates positive chemicals to flow through the brain and also helps to develop the brain of your baby. The more positive experiences the better. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! Melissa thank you so much for visiting my blog and commenting. It is also great that you sing to Max. Babies love, love, love, love, their mommy’s voice, they don’t care whether you are out of tune or can sing like a bird they just love the bonding, connection and attention they are receiving. Singing to your baby also helps in developing language skills for later. They try to imitate what you are doing with your mouth, tongue and lips. I met Max through your blog. He is adorable. Keep up the great work. I look forward to reading more about Max and his developments and the great things he will be doing in the future. Happy Blogging.

This is such a timely post for me. My baby is almost 6 months. I’m always looking for ways to play with her and this is perfect! Thank you so much! Plus, I had never thought about how rhythm was helpful for speech and development…especially something as simple as bouncing. So interesting.Kirsten Reeder recently posted…Open Backpacks

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! Kirsten thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. I loved your post on Open Backpacks it showed me what a wonderful, compassionate and knowledgeable mommy you are. I was so fascinated by this information also, on the effectiveness of bouncing, tapping and clapping. As I began to think about it more and research it more, babies came into this world enveloped in rhythm from the beating of the mommy’s heart to listening to all of the circulation and movement of fluids inside of the mommy. I also found out that this was very comforting to babies. Isn’t that amazing. Thank you for stopping by and I will be stopping by your blog also. Happy Blogging.